Best Books I read last year
I’ve compiled a list of the best books I read (Audible + Reading) last year.
I like Audible because I can do a low cognition task (chore, paint, DIY) as well as absorb information at the same time. I listen at 1.7x speed on information I’m vaguely aware of and regular 1.0x speed on something that is alien to me.
Obviously depending on your topic knowledge they may be different. I was looking at strengthening my knowledge of the entrepreneur world, sales and marketing, Austrian economics, conviction on Bitcoin as well as general financial knowledge and self improvement.
Side Note: I believe you should actively try to spend 2% of your income on education.
Ok lets go →
Entrepreneur Revolution - Daniel Priestley
This book had so many new ideas it hit me really hard and I re-listened to it 3 times. Daniel covers the significant shift of how individuals can compete vs big business with a Global Small Business as well as many facets that make entrepreneurship vital for success going forward. The blueprint for a product ecosystem I found particularly helpful.
Side note - Another book that I found super helpful was The E-Myth Revisited. I didn’t read this last year but highly recommend it if you are self employed or a small employer.
The Bitcoin Standard - Saifedean Ammous
I love Saifdean’s writing; logical, builds a foundation and then builds on top of that. If you love slavery, war, theft, don’t read this book. Otherwise I suggest you do. The book’s foundation is Austrian Economics, then layers in Fiat fallacies and sprinkles a tiny layer of technology on top.
My realization was this book felt to be somewhat a combination of all three of his books in one. A great packing of value.
Shed the fear, uncertainty, doubt, labeling that government tries to oxidize everything with.
Caring humans read and understand Bitcoin.
Key Person of Influence - Daniel Priestley
Daniel has exposed me to lots of ideas I have never seen in other writings. This book spotlights (among other things) the idea that you can be a thought leader in a specific combination of things.
My First Million Podcast verbalized a great line - a bear isn’t that interesting, a unicycle isn’t that interesting, but the combination of a bear on a unicycle is super interesting.
Key Person of influence is really the embodiment of this knowledge.
Principles of Economics - Saifedean Ammous
I was first exposed to Keynesian Economics. But since then I’ve learned logic and reasoning and have no idea how anyone can stand behind the ideas of Keynes or Modern Monetary Theory.
Principles of Economics sits in the happy spot of my brain - some land of abstraction, value and logic. Saifedean covers popular Austrian economists such as Ludwig von Mises, Carl Menger, to build from the ground up what value is and how it is exchanged.
I’ve spent a lot of my life reasoning this topic and it was amazing to see I had the same independent conclusions as Menger.
The Fiat Standard - Saifedean Ammous
All of Saifdean’s books cover to some degree the other books, but they are all worth having. This book focusses on the Fiat system. One of debt, ergo slavery. A sobering read that brings one out of a dream like state of prosperity.
War, death, slavery - all come from a Fiat System the anti-human money
$100M Leads - Alex Hormozi
I fully understand how to build a product or service. The stuff I’ve been missing is the marketing and sales aspect of things. Alex Hormozi is an excellent thinker - one of the best from any field I’ve read.
His brain is one that is highly heuristic based. I find people that just “get it” don’t struggle enough with the process to break it down and document. Alex is the opposite and captures every step of everything and can project it for others to understand.
I found Carl Sagan to be similar - struggling with the concepts, but could bridge the knowledge gap by breaking things down into chunks and cataloging them.
I recommend that you read all of his books and watch everything you can find on YouTube
This book on leads show you how to get the first step of the funnel going, by getting leads. Leads → Offers/Sales → Delivery
Alex is on his way to being a billionaire, he has the credentials backing up his words.
$100M Offers - Alex Hormozi
The next step in the chain. Another excellent book. Alex covers a billion different angles of how to make the offer. All of his writing is concrete, not abstract, very easy to visualize and comprehend.
He shows you how to get the “yes” after interest is established.
Honestly after reading his books I want to try expanding my own involvement in sales and marketing.
Books that didn’t make the list
These are some of the other books I read but didn’t have such ROI.
24 Assets - Daniel Priestley
Atomic Habits - James Clear
Elon Musk - Walter Isaacson
Traction - Gabriel Weinberg, Justin Mares
Buy Then Build - Walker Deibel
The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Ben Horowitz
The Creative Act - Rick Rubin
Nomad Capitalist - Andrew Henderson
Grit - Angela Duckworth
Scale: A Successful Agent’s Guide to Leveling Up a Real Estate Business - David M Greene
The Simple Path to Wealth - JL Collins
The Psychology of Money - Morgan Housel
Who Stole My Pension - Robert T. Kiyosaki
Company Of One - Paul Jarvis
I always enjoy others' reading list , not only do you find good reads by independent thinkers but you also get to see how they think.